Arthur Wint

Arthur Stanley Wint was born on 25 May 1920 in Plowden, in the parish of Manchester, Jamaica. Known as the Gentle Giant, he showed his gifts as a runner and jumper at Calabar High School and then at Excelsior College, where in 1937 he became Jamaica's Champion Boy Athlete. The following year he won the 800 metres at the Central American Games in Panama.

In the Second World War he trained as a pilot with the Royal Air Force in Canada, earned his wings in 1944 and flew Spitfires in Britain, rising to the rank of flight lieutenant. He stayed in the RAF for a while after the war and then began to study medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.

While he was a medical student he competed at the 1948 London Olympics, Jamaica's first appearance at the Games. On 2 August he took the silver medal in the 800 metres, Jamaica's first Olympic medal, and a few days later, in the 400 metres final, he came from almost ten metres behind to catch his team-mate and world record holder Herb McKenley. His time of 46.2 seconds equalled the Olympic record and gave Jamaica its first Olympic gold medal, ending a run of three straight American victories in the event.

At the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he carried the Jamaican flag, Wint, McKenley, Leslie Laing and George Rhoden won the 4x400 metres relay in a world record of 3:03.9, fulfilling a promise he had made four years earlier, and he won a second silver in the 800 metres. In all he won two golds and two silvers. His last race was at Wembley in 1953, the year he qualified as a doctor.

Wint returned to Jamaica and settled in Hanover, where he was the only resident doctor in the parish. He served as Jamaica's second High Commissioner to Britain, and ambassador to Sweden and Denmark, from 1974 to 1978. He received the Order of Distinction in 1973 and, according to the Jamaica Information Service, the Order of Jamaica in 1989. He died on 19 October 1992, and in London a Blue Heritage Plaque honours him, while a road in Kingston, Arthur Wint Drive, carries his name.